


A Gala In Their Honour

by AuthenticallyAlia



Category: Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters (2016)
Genre: F/F, First Kiss, Friends to Lovers, Pining, fluffl, toltzmann fluff
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-09-02
Updated: 2016-09-02
Packaged: 2018-08-12 14:31:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,414
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7938202
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/AuthenticallyAlia/pseuds/AuthenticallyAlia
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Ghostbusters are invited to a gala in their honour after saving New York City, and Patty and Jillian dance together for fun.</p>
            </blockquote>





	A Gala In Their Honour

**Author's Note:**

> heyyyyy i love toltzmann more than life itself so now you get this story about them falling in love. have fun.

Patty was wandering the Ghostbusters’ building, trying to find a way to kill time until the gala. It was almost disappointing that they hadn’t gotten a call that day. Much to Patty’s excitement, however, the Mercado Hotel was holding a gala in their honour, after they had saved the hotel, and the whole city only a few weeks ago. Patty adored fancy events and gatherings, because it was an excuse to wear fancy dresses and makeup. Some called her superficial, but she always loved how she looked. She had known exactly what she was wearing since the day they got the invitation. 

Patty thought of all this as she explored the rooms, messing with trinkets (not the stuff Holtzmann built--that scared her a little) and looking through books. She walked past one room, which the crew had decided to use as a sort of dressing room when they needed to change quickly. She did a double take when she realised she had seen someone in the room. She backtracked and peered in. On the far end of the room stood Jillian, facing a mirror. When Patty saw her, the first thing that came to her mind was surprise, then the word _beautiful_.

Jillian was wearing a red knee-length dress with long sleeves that began on her forearms, revealing her shoulders and collarbone. She stood, shakily, in a pair of black stilettos. Her hair was in a messy bun on top of her head, and she was actually wearing makeup, which surprised Patty quite a bit. 

Finding the situation curious, as Patty knew that Jillian preferred suits and flat shoes to any of the things she was wearing, Patty entered the room and approached Jillian. 

“Hey, Jill, what’re you doing in that dress?” Patty said softly.

  
Jillian jumped, and looked down, wringing her hands anxiously. “This is my outfit for the gala. I’m trying to make myself like it.”

  
“Why are you doing that? You wore suits, I thought. It’s like your thing."

  
“I’m, uh, trying something new?”

  
“Jillian, I know you better than that,” Patty said, meeting Jillian’s eyes. Jillian looked down and sighed.

  
“For a long time, when people would see me in my guyish clothes, they’d call me weird, dyke, freakshow, all that, and I’m worried… I’ve never liked having a lot of attention on me, you know? I’m worried that with all the press there, I’ll stand out and people will treat me the same way, I don’t know. I just want to fit in,” Jillian finished, tugging at the hem of her dress and wobbling on her feet.

  
“Jilly, you are weird,” Patty took a step closer and put a hand on Jillian’s when she saw her drop her head. “But you know what?”

  
“What?”

  
“I am too. So’s Abby. So’s Erin. We fight _ghosts_ , for God’s sake. But people love us because we help them and only an unreasonable person’s gonna complain about you because of your clothes. We’ve helped people, Jilly. Anyone who cares what you wear to a gala that’s about us is silly.”

  
Jillian smiled. “I guess you’re right.”

  
“Personally, I think you’d kill it in a three-piece,” Patty winked.

  
“Thanks, Patty,” Jillian said.

  
Patty said that it was really no problem, that she meant what she said, then she went to go get herself ready for the party. She wore an ankle-length teal dress, with a sheer shawl neckline. She did her makeup and made her hair look comfortably natural; she liked it that way. By the time she was done, it was time to go, and the four Ghostbusters got into their hearse/work car. Abby was wearing a simple peach coloured dress, and her hair was curled around her face. Erin was wearing a tight, knee length blue dress that complemented her eyes. And Jillian…

Patty’s heart skipped a beat when she saw how Jillian looked. She was wearing a black three piece with a navy blue button-up and a forest green bow tie that brought out her eyes. Jillian had also managed to put on a small amount of eyeliner, and even without winging it she looked intense. She had done something to her hair so that now, instead of it being frizzy and all over the place like before, it was shiny, and pulled back into a hair tie, a few individual curls left around her face. Patty wanted to compliment her outfit and how absolutely breathtaking she looked, but, well, Patty had lost her breath, along with her capacity for speech. She sat next to Jillian in the back seat and felt the urge to hold the other woman’s hand. She dismissed the thought, wondering why she had even considered it. She sat in silence for the rest of the ride.

  
When they got to the event, Patty, along with the other three, was given a directory for the events of the night.

  
6:30--WELCOME  
6:45--DINNER  
7:45--DANCE  
8:30--COMMEMORATION SPEECH

  
Patty was just wondering what the “Commemoration Speech” would be when a rather frazzled looking woman approached them. 

“Hello, you must be our wonderful guests of honour, yes?” She began, continuing before any of them had a chance to answer. “I’m Melinda Olson, the owner of the Mercado Hotel, it’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, ah, Ghostbusters. As you can see on your directory, the gala will consist of four different events: welcome, dinner, dance, and the commemoration speech. You will be…,” Melinda continued explaining how their night would go.

After Melinda finished explaining the plans for the night, and the team located the seats that were labelled “RESERVED” and sat. Luckily, they were the only people sat at the table. Patty noted that the hotel seemed to have understood that the group tended to prefer to keep to themselves. 

A few minutes after they sat down, the orator began the welcome. She covered all the basics, that the gala was in honour of the brave Ghostbusters (Patty hardly agreed with that, she had nearly wet herself so many times the night of the ghost outbreak) who valiantly saved the city and nearly lost one of their own in the portal. Erin, Patty, and Jillian all glanced at Abby at that point. Abby rolled her eyes. They all laughed quietly.

  
After the welcome, the guests were allowed to order food and the four women nearly knocked over their table trying to scramble to the menus. They had all forgotten to eat lunch because Jillian was demonstrating a new crazy machine, and upgrades to their suits and guns. By the time the demonstration was done and Jillian was satisfied, it was only two hours until the gala and no one wanted to spoil the dinner.   
Now, the four women quickly chose what they were going to order, and called a server over.

They ordered enough food to feed a large family, which, technically, they are. They chatted and enjoyed themselves, talking about their most recent escapades as the famous Ghostbusters. They had grown close in the past months, and Patty was happy she had found this new family of hers. They all cared deeply about each other, and they were the closest of friends. On the other hand, it’s hard not to be close to people who have seen you run from ghosts, get covered in slime, or at your weakest moment. So, Patty loved her family.

  
This was why, when dinner ended and the dance began, Patty didn’t think twice about it when Jillian asked her to dance. Patty gladly obliged, and the two of them began dancing to the quick song. It was a swing song, Patty’s favourite genre, so she showed Jillian some moved and they danced, laughing together and having fun. Once, Jillian tried to spin Patty, but the height difference meant that Patty had to bend her knees to go under Jillian’s arm. They both laughed it off and Patty spun Jillian. They danced like this for a while, spinning, swinging, laughing, like they did it every day. Patty loved this; Jillian was so fun to dance with.

  
After the two dancing for a long time, the feeling in the songs changed. A slow song began to play, so the two, almost without thinking, changed their pace and dance. They began slow dancing, stepping to the beat. Patty felt herself blushing and realised why. Her feelings for Jillian may be more than platonic. She immediately rejected this, thinking: _There’s no way we can ever be together, Jillian would never like me. Besides, no one would hire a team with half gay people. For the team. I can’t._

  
She noticed she had been staring off into space, going through the motions of the dances but not really paying attention. She looked down at Jillian and slowed to a stop. Without Patty registering, Jillian had rested her head on Patty’s chest, and they were now slow dancing very close together. Patty’s pulse quickened, along with her breathing, and she was worried Jillian could hear. Her palms became sweaty. Thankfully, Patty noticed the song end and let go of Jillian’s hands, stepping away.

  
“I, uh, sorry I have to, uh, go sit down, my feet are hurting, you know?” She tried to say smoothly, rubbing her clammy hands together.

  
“Yeah, I guess, uh, go ahead, it’s okay,” Jillian said, confused.

  
Patty paced quickly over to the table at which Abby and Erin sat, talking about the colouration of the apparitions they had been seeing recently. When Patty sat down, they turned their attention to her.

  
“So, Patty, you and Jillian were up there for a while! I could never be that brave,” Erin said in a pseudo-serious tone.

  
“Whaddyou mean?” Patty responded.

  
“You know,” Erin said, lowering her voice slightly, enough so that neighbouring tables wouldn’t hear. “Because you’re both girls.”

  
Patty understood, but decided to stay outwardly oblivious. “I don’t understand. Why’d that matter?”

  
“Uh,” Erin glanced at Abby, who looked like she was watching politicians argue. “You know, because that would make you look like a...a _lesbian_?”

  
Erin said the word “lesbian” like a swear, a naughty word, lowering her voice and leaning towards Patty. She even, to add insult to injury, glanced around to make sure no one heard. Patty frowned and tilted her head to the side. She wanted to screw with Erin.

  
“Why would I care that I could look like a lesbian?” Patty said with her normal volume, causing Erin’s eyes to widen a little.

  
“It’s just...you know…”

  
“I know what?”

  
Patty almost pitied Erin. She looked like she was really struggling. “Y-you know…”

  
Patty shook her head. “It’s just love, girl. It doesn’t matter. You know all about science and physics but somehow you never learned that it’s normal.”

  
“I do think it’s normal!” Erin lied, trying to backtrack.

  
Patty just raised her eyebrows and noticed Abby smiled in disbelief.

  
“I mean...the gays. They’re normal. I actually, um, had a friend in college who was a homosexual, and he was really nice! He was a close friend, next to Abby, of course.”

  
Patty sighed. She wasn’t going to get anywhere at this point. This would be a discussion for another time, maybe when Patty got a girlfriend...whether the girlfriend was someone they knew or not. It’s not like anything went unnoticed in their building.

  
After the gala was over, the four went home together, each splitting off into their own rooms. Patty laid down on her bed and began reading, but she kept getting distracted so she had to put the book down. Too tired to do anything else, she just sat on her bed and thought.

  
Then she came to a decision. She stood up, sighed, walked over to her CD player, put a CD in, and walked to Jillian’s room. She paused before the closed door, mentally preparing herself. Then, she knocked. There was no answer.

  
“Jilly, are you in there? There’s something I wanna show you.”

  
She heard footsteps and the door opened to a reluctant looking Jillian. “What do you need?”

  
“Jill, would you just come with me? I really need you.”

Holtzmann thought for a minute, then left her room. “Fine. You won’t leave halfway through, right?”

  
“Of course not.”

  
Jillian was silent until they got to Patty’s room. Patty walked over to the CD player and pressed “play.” Slow instrumental music began to play. Jillian’s eyes widened as Patty turned to her, hand extended.

  
“I think I owe you a dance,” Patty said nervously. “If-if you want.”

  
Jillian gave a small smile and nodded quickly, taking Patty’s hand. They timed their steps to the cadence of the song, and Patty felt her heart beating quickly again, but she also felt like she was floating, like they were dancing on a cloud. Just them; nothing else existed. Jillian rested her head on Patty’s chest again, and Patty didn’t mind now. Without knowing, they both smiled at the same time. They swayed to the music in their little personal bubble for an unmeasurable amount of time. Time didn’t exist to Patty anymore, she was outside, outside of her body, outside of the world, outside of time. She was happy.

  
“Jill?” she heard herself say.

  
“Hmm?”

  
Patty heard herself talking as if she was watching the scene unfold instead of participating in it. “I think...I think I love you.”

  
Jillian lifted her head so she could make eye contact with Patty, and the words Patty had heard from her own mouth--oh God. She was snapped back into time, onto the world, back into her room, feet touching the ground, and very aware of Jillian’s eyes on hers.   
“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have--”

  
Patty was cut off from her apology by Jillian standing on her tiptoes and kissing her. Jillian wrapped her arms around Patty’s neck as if trying to use it as an anchor to pull herself closer into the kiss. Patty recovered from her surprise and kissed back, fireworks going off in her head, her heart, her stomach. She cradled the back of Jillian’s head in her hand, and the physical contact made electric shocks run up her arm.

  
Jillian broke the kiss, and the two of them panted, still unbelievably close. “Took you long enough,” Jillian mumbled. “I was hoping you’d make a move.”

  
Patty smiled, then bent down to kiss Jillian again. She couldn’t be happier. She was so, so in love. 


End file.
